Child Observation For The Early Years

This is a key text for all those studying for degrees and foundation degrees in early childhood, early years and related disciplines. It enables students to appreciate the central role of observation for understanding, planning for and educating early years children. It covers the theoretical background in detail and highlights important works. The book includes guidance on techniques and recording and analyzing and consideration of the ethical implications. The text helps students to understand how their observations can be effectively used to draw conclusions or to prompt further study. This Second Edition includes new chapters on the curriculum and recording and analyzing.

"The book is an invaluable resource for all those on Early Years foundation degrees, degrees in Early Childhood Studies and pathways towards EYPS. It enables students to appreciate the central role of observation within Early Years education and its implications for Early Years practice. It examines current initiatives and policies as a context for discussing the theoretical background, and draws on a number of methodologies in order to develop clear and systematic ways of making observations, recording data and using it to evaluate and assess children."--BOOK JACKET.

This is a key text for all those studying for degrees and foundation degrees in early childhood, early years and related disciplines and for candidates on EYPS pathways. It enables students to appreciate the central role of observation for understanding, planning for and educating early years children. The theoretical background to child observation is covered in detail, the text highlights important works and considers the ethical implications. This Second Edition includes new chapters on recording and analysing and the curriculum and is fully updated throughout with links to the updated Early Years Foundation Stage. Interactive activities and real life case studies are included to help the reader engage with the text and make essential links between theory and practice. Ioanna Palaiologou is a lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Educational Studies at the University of Hull and a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society with specialism on child development and learning theories. Ioanna is currently leading the Masters in Early Childhood Studies, supervises a number of PhD students and is the Academic coordinator for Research Students Support. About the Early Years Series This series has been designed to support degree and foundation degree students of early years, early childhood and realted disciplines. Each text takes a focused look at a specific topic and approaches it in an accessible and user-friendly way. Activities pose questions to prompt thought and discussion, and further reading suggestions, including useful websites, are provided to help students access extended learning in each topic. Other titles in the series are Child Development for Early Childhood Studies, Successful Placements in Early Years Settings and Childhood in Society for Early Childhood Studies.

This accessible guide to child development is for students of degrees and foundation degrees in Early Years, Early Childhood Studies and related disciplines and for early years practitioners. *Introduces the context of child development *Develops an understanding of development and of how early years practitioners can support this *Explores the biological/social debate, and the importance of holistic development *Examines factors affecting development and includes a chapter on reflective practice *Considers the complexity of children′s development and argues that is is not always a straight forward progression This fifth edition: *is updated in line with the new EYFS and the updated Development Matters; *is updated to include child development learning from 0-8 *includes up-to-date guidance on assessment processes in the Early Years; *includes a new section with key knowledge on well known theories of child development.

This New Zealand adaptation looks both at historical roots of child observation as well as various approaches to observing young children in early years settings.

This title is designed to help early years practitioners in any setting understand clearly and precisely how to best plan for and observe learning in the early years. This title covers all the key aspects of planning and observing that affect those in practice, including how to: Assess and observe children, Put children at the heart of your planning, Link observation to planning, Plan for the Early Years Foundation Stage. This title also includes printable/photocopiable forms for you to use to structure your own planning and observations with, and help you to put the best practice examples in this book directly into practice.

This is a book about the process of finding user-friendly and purposeful ways of observing and planning that will help those who are working with young children in a variety of settings to look with insight at children, providing what they need in order to develop and learn optimally. By examining the historic background of observing and planning, and describing examples of good practice in different group settings, this book will help to monitor a child′s progress - what is needed now and to work out what is needed next. The real life case studies from various settings including day care, nursery school, primary school, private sector and Soweto examine different observation techniques, looking at their strengths, drawbacks and use in everyday practice. Examples from the UK and internationally illustrate the history and importance of observation in a range of contexts, while a glossary clearly explains the key terminology. All the examples given in this book can be used with different National Framework documents worldwide, bearing in mind however the authors′ belief that curriculum frameworks must be used as a resource and never as a limiting straitjacket. Drawing on key theory and research, the book′s chapters cover: Flexible planning Record keeping Working with parents Using technology. Full colour photographs, illustrations and useful charts and diagrams make this an accessible and engaging resource that will no doubt be invaluable to any early years practitioner. This book was originally published as Getting to Know You - part of the 0-8 series.

Margaret Carr′s seminal work on Learning Stories was first published by SAGE in 2001, and this widely acclaimed approach to assessment has since gained a huge international following. In this new full-colour book, the authors outline the philosophy behind Learning Stories and refer to the latest findings from the research projects they have led with teachers on learning dispositions and learning power, to argue that Learning Stories can construct learner identities in early childhood settings and schools. By making the connection between sociocultural approaches to pedagogy and assessment, and narrative inquiry, this book contextualizes Learning Stories as a philosophical approach to education, learning and pedagogy. Chapters explore how Learning Stories: - help make connections with families - support the inclusion of children and family voices - tell us stories about babies - allow children to dictate their own stories - can be used to revisit children′s learning journeys - can contribute to teaching and learning wisdom This ground-breaking book expands on the concept of Learning Stories and includes examples from practice in both New Zealand and the UK. It outlines the philosophy behind this pedagogical tool for documenting how learning identities are constructed and shows, through research evidence, why the early years is such a critical time in the formation of learning dispositions. Margaret Carr is a Professor of Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Wendy Lee is Director of the Educational Leadership Project, New Zealand.